Feb. 23, 2008

Results

WASHINGTON - The American University men's and women's swimming and diving teams concluded their 2007-08 seasons on Saturday after the third day of the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships at Lejeune Hall on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy. The Eagles final day of competition was highlighted by five individual scorers including second-place finishes by freshman Dorothy Isaacs in the 100 free and senior Meghan Thiel in the 1650 free.

Isaacs, who took second place in the 50 free on Thursday in an AU record time of 23.79, placed second in the 100 free prelim with a 51.85 to qualify for her third finals heat in as many days. Isaacs' prelim time topped her previous season best and moved her from seventh to third on AU's all-time top-10 list. Isaacs again took second in the finals with yet another personal best time of 51.61 and moved to second on AU's all-time list in the process. Isaacs finished only behind Thuy-Mi Dinh of Navy who set a new PL record of 49.91 in the event.

In her final competition as an Eagle, Thiel placed second in the women's 1650 free, finishing in a time of 16:43.42. Thiel came into the event as the defending three-time champion but was overtaken by Navy's Tara Chapman who won the event in 16:34.63, breaking Thiels PL record set at the 2006 championships.

Dan Nagelberg scored in the men's 1650 free, placing fourth in a personal best time of 16:05.83. Nagelberg's time topped his previous personal record in the event by nearly 20 seconds and moved him from eighth place to sixth on AU's all-time top-10. Bucknell's Lucky Trafton won the event in 15:34.89.

Joe Coronato also advanced to his third finals heat of this championship when he placed seventh in the 100 free prelim with a 46.45. Coronato's prelim time replaced his previous personal record at 10th on AU's top times list. In the finals Coronato topped himself yet again and placed fourth in a new personal record time of 45.87. That time puts Coronato into a tie with Steve Maher for fifth place on AU's all-time top-10.

Eleanor Clay earned her first career berth into a finals heat on Saturday, swimming a 2:26.04 for seventh place in the 200 breast prelim. That prelim time replaced Clay's previous personal record at seventh on AU's top-10 list. Clay placed seventh again in the finals but improved on her prelim time by more than two seconds, setting a new personal record of 2:23.88 and moving to fifth place on the school's top times list.

Paige Mellars advanced to the consolation finals of the 200 back on Saturday with a 15th place finishing time of 2:10.56 in the prelims, topping her season best time by a full five seconds. In the consolation finals Mellars took eighth place, 16th overall, in 2:12.42. Beverly Walker took first in the event with a championship time of 2:04.16.

Matt Pelletier, fresh off his second-place finish in the 100 back on Friday, finished ninth in the 200 back prelim to advance to the consolation finals. Pelletier's prelim time of 1:54.01 was just a half second shy of qualifying him for the finals and a full two seconds faster than his previous season best. Pelletier completed the finals course in a time of 1:55.94 to place seventh, 15th overall. Navy's Ryan Ward took first in the event with a time of 1:50.82.

Michael DiDonato earned an appearance in the 200 breast consolation finals by placing 12th in the prelims with a time of 2:13.42. DiDonato's prelim time topped his previous season best time in the event by nearly six seconds. In the consolation final DiDonato placed fifth, 13th overall, and edged out his prelim time with a new personal best of 2:13.18.

In the 200 free relay, the men's team placed sixth while the women's team placed seventh. Pelletier, Nagelberg, Brian Galm and Nagelberg combined on the men's side for a time of 3:07.92 after the women's team of Thiel, Clay, Mary-Margaret Lopez and Isaacs teamed up for a time of 3:38.69.

Overall, the men's team finished sixth at the PL Championships and the women's team finished seventh. The men scored a total of 265 points while Navy won the team championship with 887. The women's team totaled 275 points to Colgate's championship winning total of 723.5.

Men's Team Standings
Navy 887
Bucknell 683.5
Army 593
Lehigh 358.5
Colgate 348
American 265
Lafayette 201
Holy Cross 124

Women's Team Standings
Colgate 723.5
Navy 679
Bucknell 644.5
Lafayette 401
Lehigh 328
Army 304
American 275
Holy Cross 150